Lightwave L21 Smart Dimmer, 1 Gang, Stainless Steel - Compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit. iOS & Android Compatible

A very solidly built two button smart switch. Simple to use either smartly or locally via the buttons (tab either button to turn on/off or push and hold a button to adjust dimming).If you're going into a backbox with much less than 35mm you will need the spacer. It's a great finish but does make the switch protrude a little - it doesn't bother me but if you want a flat-against-the-wall switch make sure that backbox has plenty of room.The instructions for fitting in the box are good for the electrical size of things and the warnings on how to wire and not to wire. Getting the switch to sit in the spacer and "snap" all four corners of the chrome front plate into place was a sodding nightmare, and eventually took two of us to apply a ton of pressure all around (and the handle end of a screwdriver behind a cloth) to get the last damn corner in. This was despite having removed and checked out alignment, flatness against the wall/spacer and so forth.Once it's on, looks really does look great and that finish is solid and polished - I'm really happy with it.Pairing with the hub is easy (although in my hub setup originally Alexa couldn't find the switch until multiple hub resets and calls to LW support - but that's a hub issue not a switch issue), and if their is a pairing problem it's easy to reset them (although that instruction isn't in the box - if you need more info there's various docs on the LW website)The only slight niggle I've noticed is that when at the switch you tap the down button to turn it off, the light flicks off, comes back a bit and flicks off. I'm using Phillips bulbs, and there are many posts from Gen 1 that talk about the need to use good quality bulbs - so bear that in mind. Turning on the light however, no issues at all.I've not put one in a bedroom yet, but be warned that the blue LED on the light between the button goes red when it's off, and stays red whilst it's off. It's not hugely bright, but in a pitch black bedroom, may annoy folks that are light sensitive.

I'm very impressed with this technology to the point where I've now put LightwaveRF light switches in every room of my home and have started to change some of the basic electric sockets to LightwaveRF. I've been using the system for a number of years and they have have worked perfectly. It works seamlessly with my Google Home setup, where I have a NEST Hub Max in each of the main rooms. The setup is easy and there are fairly regular firmware updates. The app is easy to use, but to be honest I only ever use that to set up the devices and routines, I use Google assistant to control them either from my phone or the Google Home devices. I prefer LightwaveRF over some of the other systems as you can use your existing lights and light bulbs, in most use cases there is no need to change, which means you have access to far more variety of light fittings, than say a Phillips Hue system. You do need to also purchase a Link Plus device, which is the router that connects the devices to the internet. but you only need one of these per home for all of the devices. I have a fairly large home and it hasn't failed to reach every switch.I can't recommend the system enough.

This product certainly is not cheap nor is it perfect, therefore I would strongly recommend anyone interested in it trial a handful before committing to a full implementation. Like many smart home products this one is not without flaws and a trial will help you determine whether the benefits outweigh the quirks - or whether it is worth waiting.From my testing I wanted to determine:- How easy is it to install?- Do I want to / need to replace my switch back boxes?- Are the issues with flickering and glowing bulbs still present?- Is the LED status light disruptive at night?- Any other disruptive behaviour, e.g. humming or buzzing?- How does the switches dimming action function and how responsive is it?INSTALLATIONI'm no DIY expert yet I found installing the new switch pretty straight forward. The back box on my trial switch was (much like most are) 25mm deep however this switch requires 35mm clearance. I could have used the provided spacer but I instead opted to increase the depth. When I roll it out to the rest of the house I may well just use the spacer. Without the spacer the switch is low profile when installed in a 35mm back box. With the spacer the switch sits not much further off the wall than a typical white plastic switch. So down to personal preference.GLOWING / FLICKERINGLike many houses in the UK, my house does not have neutral wires in my switches. This can cause stability issues that result in flickering and glowing. My switch controls a single ceiling light with six E14 LED bulbs. When I first did the install the light had six Amazon Basics bulbs which did not flicker, however when "off" one of the six bulbs glowed. These bulbs are not listed as tested by Lightwave so I went and brought one that was - I would recommend reviewing the compatibility chart, it is VERY limited in certain bulb sizes. The new bulbs to not glow, however I have had flicking issues. If I turn the bulbs on to a given brightness or lower the brightness they do not flicker, however if I increase the brightness I do get varying levels of flickering. This has been my main sticking point - other than price.DISRUPTIVENESSA number of reviews of this product complain about the status light that is (by default) always on. As others have stated, it is now configurable. The colour and brightness can be changed - including turning it off. Additionally, automations can be used to control it. My switch does make a buzzing sound, however this is not audible without getting close to it with my ear.FUNCTIONI generally use my voice assistant or automations to control tech around my house. The need for a physical switch is more for convenience or guests. The switch has two buttons as you would expect, one to turn on, one to turn off. When single tapping the "on" button it will turn the lights on to the previous brightness it was set to. Double tapping will turn on to 100% - it will also set 100% as the previous brightness. To change the brightness up or down you have to hold the button until it changes. I find that it takes quite a long time for the light to start dimming / brightening and when finally it does it changes quite quickly. I don't personally like this, but perhaps I'm a little too impatient but it is less of a concern because I use other means most of the time.SUMMARYI think I am likely to be rolling Lightwave to my whole house. I would argue this product is another example of how smart home is still slightly short of mainstream. You have to accept some quirks and some changes aspects that will not be as good as you probably take for granted.

On first glance, it looks like there are no screw holes to affix the faceplate to the existing back-box!But, turns out you have to unclip the faceplate from the plastic switch mechanism. I don’t like this, as it makes installation difficult. The faceplate is really arkward to clip back on, once the switch is installed.The faceplate is slightly wider than a standard light switch, so if you’ve previously had two traditional switches right next to each other, you may struggle if using this as a replacement for one of them. Because the switch is plastic, there is no earth connection. My back-box is plastic, so the earth wire has nowhere to attach now.I think they should also sell a version with screw holes through the faceplate, which would allow easier installation. They should also shrink the faceplate by a millimetre or so it’s a standard size.Also, I hadn’t initially realised I needed a SmartWave Hub to intergrate this with the Amazon Echo. At over £120 seems a bit steep, especially as I have recently purchased Smart Sockets for £11.99 each and these don’t require any hub to work with the Echo.My LEDs flicker occasionally, which they didn’t do with my original V-Pro analogue dimmer.

This product seemed to fit my requirement's well. After moving into a much larger house the 10 Phillips Hue bulbs I owned were the wrong fittings for the new house so I sold those on and looked for a product that could control the dimming from Alexa or via an app using a wi-fi light switch rather than individual bulbs.When I received the Lightwave hub and switch my first impressions were positive, whilst the hub seemed a bit lightweight and small for the money, the switch seemed of good quality and astetics.I plumbed it all in, but had great difficulty getting the hub to display the pairing LED as described in the instructions. An hour later and several resets I got it working finally. After connecting the switch up and testing it seemed the perfect solution. However...After several days off use I noticed an occasional flicker, nothing too much to worry about, until a few days later, then the 6 bulbs connected to the switch started flickering like I was in a disco! Turning them up or down did nothing, I had to switch the switch off for it to stop. This started happening more and more until I decided to call the tech support line. They blamed the LED bulbs so I ordered some Philips Dim Tone bulbs which allegedly are compatible. However after 10 minutes of use they too started flickering and would only stop if I turned off the switch.Well that was enough. I have now packed up all of the Lightwave equipment and have arranged a return back to Amazon. It's a shame as I initially loved the product and even recommended it to friends going down the Hue route, however if you use LED bulbs, which I assume most people do nowadays, it seems a poor execution of what could of been a great product.So back to the manual dimmer switch for now...If it's been helpful please click